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citizen kane

winter 2022, 2024-

instructor: Mark Worthington

Software: Blender, Maya

redesign in process

based on a film by Orson Welles

At its core, Citizen Kane is a story about a man longing for his past innocence he has lost over time. Inevitably, then, Citizen Kane is a story about a man who desires power but loses it all at once.
 

Human desire for power can manifest in many ways. And indeed, there are many in which a person can make themselves desirable to the public. I intend to adapt Citizen Kane as a dystopian science fiction movie where Kane is not the owner of a newspaper empire, but a pharmaceutical one.

 

In a world à la Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World where order and class are strictly enforced through guaranteeing different forms of pleasure to each class, Charles Kane rises to power after his small company successfully develops a pill that works in the manner of the legendary Elixir of Life: a pill that allows people to stay young and stop aging. With Kane’s enthusiastic lobbying, the government supports Kane’s endeavours to spread the medication in hopes that a younger populace can fuel the labour force and the animalistic pursuit for pleasure in a more effective manner.

INT. Great Hall of Xanadu, Kane's Residence

modeled in blender

To highlight both order and pleasure, two of which the world my Citizen Kane is situated, I would like to contrast De Stijl architecture of the city with Streamline Moderne architecture of Xanadu. Xanadu being constructed in Streamline Moderne / Art Moderne is an intentional choice; indeed, streamline modern is considered a lost art, an artifact of modernism that we only reminisce upon. De Stijl’s carefully reinforced order can be contrasted with the fantastical longing that Kane has once lost. The goal is to create the contrast between the longing for power and longing for innocence through design. Currently, I would be tasked to create the middle ground with the speeches where the underground resistance speeches happen: what does the middle ground between Art Moderne and De Stijl look like? I plan for setting of the resistance to resemble De Stijl architecture closer to Art Moderne as Kane isn ot motivated by the pure initiative for change and reform. Xanadu is a monument that is yet to be completed; it only makes sense for private kingdom to be constructed with something obsolete in a setting that takes place in the far future

Ideas for EXT. Xanadu, Charles Kane's residence

INT. Chapel in Xanadu, Kane's sanctuary

modeled in autodesk maya

Character boards

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